Splash Page Launched!

It’s not much, and it’s kind of janky—everything is kind of janky, but I decided to throw up a temporary splash page. So there’s that!

Now all four of you following this dev blog, go forth to novelmonkey.com and boost my Google Analytics to the teens!

Purpose of a Splash Page

Initially it seemed quite silly for me to put something like this up. After all, the app itself is barely ready for launch yet, what would I do with a splash site? Well, for one, at least it looks like the app is in business.

A 404 page or a blank page just doesn’t look very good for anyone. It’s the equivalent of a windowless store front in the back of a scary alley. Nothing says “come in!” like a scary alley.

Putting up a splash page at least has the effect of hanging up a banner that says “oh hey, we’re real, and although we’re not really ready yet, at least we’re getting our ducks in a row and hopefully getting there,” which is just slightly better I guess.

Gathering Interest

Of course, the second purpose (and probably more important purpose) is marketing and gaining a user base, through building up an email list of users. Of course, doing anything like that requires actively going into the community or boosting SEO rankings (oh right, I should do that) so people can find your app in the first place. For me, that audience for the first phase of Novel Monkey is anyone interested or searching for NaNoWriMo.

So yeah, I was that windowless back-alley store for a long time, but not anymore! Of course, any kind of marketing or store-front just means I need to double down and actually get a minimally-viable product up and running.

Tally-ho!